Posts Tagged ‘moscow’

a-ha played at the Olimpiyskiy [Olympic Stadium] indoor arena in Moscow on Saturday, 12 March. This was their sixth concert at this particular venue and their eighth concert in Moscow, having previously played in the city in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2010.

The Olimpiyskiy arena is so large that a-ha’s stage setup appeared quite small this time, compared to the other arenas.

The setlist in Moscow was the same as in St Petersburg on Thursday, meaning “Giving Up The Ghost” and “Mythomania” were still absent, while “We’re Looking For The Whales” and “You Are The One” remained. “I’ve Been Losing You” opened the show again.

Instead of standing at the front during “Velvet” and “Lifelines”, Tini was standing further back on the stage this time. The left screen seemed to malfunction during some of the songs.

“[The setlist] has been a mixture of old and new so far. But it’s kind of changing on a nightly basis, or has been on this leg of the tour. It’s easy, in a way, to settle into playing all the big hits, because you know the reaction is always great to that. At the same time, you try to put some new songs in there and re-arrange some of the songs, so that they are different than you’ve done before and what people have heard before”, Magne told BBC Radio 2’s Jo Whiley on the phone from Riga tonight, as it was announced that a-ha will play an exclusive concert for Radio 2 at the BBC Radio Theatre in London on 24 March. More info at bbc.co.uk.

Apparatjik played their first concert in Russia this Friday, May 13th, at the newly established Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design in Moscow.

There were initially only 200 invitations available for two people each, by registering on the Strelka website, but this week anyone who added their name to the event on Apparatjik’s Facebook page were automatically added to the guestlist (which ended up being 188 people). So there must have been at least 600 people in the audience (a Russian fan claims there were as many as 1500-2000 people).

Simen and Peder from Moods of Norway accompanied the other apparatjiks on the trip to Moscow, and a couple of pictures have been posted on their Facebook page, including one with Magne and Karl Oluf Wennerberg in front of the Bolshoi Theatre.

Update: Check out this cool video clip from the Moscow concert on Vimeo.